


What Comes After

by Classic_Rocker2000



Category: The Beatles
Genre: Afterlife, Bittersweet, Crying, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, I meant to post this a couple days ago, Mourning, Sad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-30
Updated: 2020-08-30
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:14:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,729
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26189323
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Classic_Rocker2000/pseuds/Classic_Rocker2000
Summary: On August 27, 1967, Brian Epstein wakes up in a strange place(Written for the 53rd anniversary of Brian's death)
Relationships: Brian Epstein & George Harrison & John Lennon & Paul McCartney & Ringo Starr, Brian Epstein & Stuart Sutcliffe
Comments: 4
Kudos: 12





	What Comes After

Brian awoke to a splitting headache.

He didn’t have any sort of reason why he should wake up with such a pain in his head, but for a few moments, he just curled up in the fetal position, praying it would go away. He also noticed he felt short of breath, for which he similarly had no explanation.

And then, as the pain subsided and the shortness of breath went away, he suddenly realized he could feel grass beneath his fingertips.

At that, his eyes opened slightly, which seemed only to confirm that, yes, he was in a field. Most likely out in the middle of nowhere too.

 _But… how did I get all the way out here?_ he wondered. Kidnapping and sleepwalking were the two major possibilities that sprang forth. The more he thought about it, the more the former seemed likely, given how far he would have otherwise had to walk from his home on Chapel Street.

Nothing about this made sense, and Brian felt his eyes close again. Part of him wondered if this was simply a bizarre dream he was having. But then, he felt a hand lay a gentle touch on his shoulder. Then, he heard a voice, sounding both Scouse and Scottish, ask in a quiet voice, “Mr. Epstein?”

Brian felt his eyes snap open. The voice had come from directly behind him, and he felt too scared to turn his head to face the one who had spoken.

It was a voice he’d only heard once in his lifetime, and it belonged to someone who’d died maybe two months after their only meeting.

“Eppy?”

 _God, not even the boys call me that to my face,_ Brian thought, with a note of amusement.

Finally, he forced himself to sit up and turn his head, and there he was. He was a kid below average height, with blue-grey eyes and brown hair arranged in a bowl cut. He didn’t look as tired as he had the one time Brian had met him. But Brian knew it was because he was no longer plagued by the headaches that had eventually claimed his life at the age of twenty-one.

Little Stuart looked almost exactly as he had the last time Brian had seen him. And his appearance only brought about more questions.

“Stu?” Brian asked, almost certain he’d taken something the night before and was now hallucinating.

The boy gave a small nod. “I didn’t think I’d see you, of all people, here so soon…”

At that, more than a few alarm bells went off in Brian’s head.

Trying to stay calm, Brian asked, “Wh-Where am I?”

Stu shrugged, before saying, with a note of reservation, “Well, truth be told, this place has all sorts of names. The one I hear thrown around most is ‘heaven.’”

A chill ran down Brian’s spine. He could recognize the implications almost immediately, and it was a possibility he didn’t even want to contemplate, much less accept. With almost imperceptible shakes of his head, he said, in a quiet voice that he barely recognized as his own, “No… No, no. I-I can’t be dead! I… I can’t…”

He couldn’t finish that thought. He could only stare blankly ahead of him, and he could tell by Stu’s face that the poor kid just wished he didn’t have to be here right now, explaining what had happened. If anything, Stu looked just as lost for words as he surely did.

A few more moments passed before Stu quietly asked, “Do you remember what happened?”

As he tried to think, Brian found that his memories of the night before were incredibly hazy. He shook his head, before saying, “I can’t. I can’t remember anything…”

Stu shot him a look, one that rang of sympathy, but also solemnity. Finally, after another moment or two, he said, if rather quietly, “Brian, last night, you overdosed…”

“Fucking hell!”

At that point, Brian completely shut down, only capable of staring blankly ahead of him. Slowly, painfully, it was becoming more obvious that whatever nightmare he’d stepped into was, in fact, reality. Given his previous impressions of Stuart, he had little reason to suspect the young man was lying to him. As he continued to consider all the other options, the fact that he was in the afterlife seemed to be the only possibility that explained everything.

And then he broke down. He could feel Stu catch him before he fell back onto the ground, but otherwise, he was numb to the world. He could barely even hear his own desperate screams and sobs over the din of thoughts racing through his head. How were his poor mother and brother supposed to deal with this? His father had just died a month and a half ago, and now he was gone too. How on earth was he supposed to handle being dead, especially when he thought he’d finally been moving past his father’s death. Now he’d never be able to live the next chapter of his life. Then the boys crossed his mind.

He knew, even if they hadn’t been listening to him as much as they had in the past, that the four of them still looked up to him, in some form or another. He knew John had major issues with abandonment and death, and this would be another painful blow to his psyche. But most of all, he wondered what would happen to them now that he was gone.

He wasn’t sure how long it was before he was able to stop screaming, his throat still feeling raw and hoarse. Finally, he was able to hear Stu say something.

“Brian, it’ll be okay. They’ll be okay.”

Brian finally regained control of his faculties again, and managed to sit up straight. He gave Stu a look that said what he couldn’t put into words in his current state: _How on earth do you know they’ll be fine after something like this?!_

Almost as soon as Brian realized how daft of him it was to be saying this to someone who’d been in Brian’s shoes once, Stuart, with a gentle look in his eyes, said, “I was in your shoes five years ago. And… I also wondered if my friends and family would be okay. Maybe I can’t say that everyone’s completely okay now, but they’ve been doing better than they were.”

Sniffling a bit, Brian asked, “Can I… Can I see them?”

Stu nodded, “Yeah. You’ll be able to see them any time you want. They might not see you or hear you, but… I get the feeling they can sense us.”

“And… how do I get down there?”

“I’m not really sure how to explain it… If I’ve wanted to see Astrid, it usually happens when I really want to be with her.” A few moments passed, before Stu asked, “I’m guessing you’re thinking about the others?”

Brian nodded. He didn’t think he could face his father or his mother in his current state of mind. But he did want to make sure, at the very least, that the boys he’d looked after for five years were okay.

Then, slowly, he opened his eyes to find himself sitting next to Paul. He looked like he’d just gotten the news, as he was just standing there, a blank look on his face. Brian desperately wished that there were something he could say, to apologize for being so stupid. But part of him also remembered Stu saying that the living wouldn’t be able to see or hear him.

Then Paul started running about the place, and at first, Brian couldn’t make heads or tails of what he was up to. But then, from just across the hall, John came sprinting into the picture, looking distraught as Brian had ever seen him. As John wrapped his arms around Paul, it became apparent to Brian that Paul had been looking for John.

And then he noticed something else.

He noticed that John’s hair looked… different from how it usually did. It took Brian a few minutes to process what it was. John’s hair was the same length, same style, it was just a different colour. Add to that, his and Paul’s skin also looked different. _Less green…_

It then finally dawned on him that he was no longer colour-blind.

On any other day, that might have been an exciting prospect for him, given how many jokes had been made at his expense over his inability to read traffic signals. But at the same time, he knew that the only reason he was seeing John’s hair as reddish-brown was because he was _dead._ He wished he could take them both into his arms, assure them that things would be okay in time, but he knew he’d lost that chance with the loss of a physical body.

Somewhere in that sea of regrets and missed opportunities though, a thought crossed his mind. He walked up to the two lads, and not caring whether they would hear him or not, he whispered to the two of them, “Take care of each other.”

He hoped that, if they did hear him by some miracle of nature, that they’d know he’d also meant George and Ringo.

Speaking of them, as he stepped outside, he could see George and Ringo, taking solace in each other, and in Pattie and Maureen. Similarly, he walked up to the two of them, and told them to look after each other as well, hoping that they would hear him and that they would understand what he’d meant.

The next he knew, he was standing once more in the field where he’d woken up, Stu once again by his side. After a moment’s pause, Stu asked, “You ready?”

“Where are we going?”

“Honestly, wherever you want to go. I think this place is just here so that people have a peaceful spot to wake up.”

Brian had no specific location in mind. He knew that with eternity in mind, he could go just about anywhere in the world. “Onward, I guess,” he replied.

Stu nodded, and they started wandering. And as they wandered, Brian finally realized that, even if his time was done, he would see everyone else in time. Granted, he had no idea when that would be, but he hoped it would be many, many years from now.

**Author's Note:**

> So, first off, I'd like to apologize that I'm almost three days late with this. I only got the idea late in the evening of August 26th, and then the 27th was a bit busier than I was anticipating. Second, I hope you guys enjoy this; kudos and comments are appreciated. 
> 
> I promise to try and not make this a trend whenever it's the anniversary of someone's death.


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